Survey's of CEOs, CFOs, COOs and CIOs have found that 70% or more of information technology (IT) spending decisions by companies in various industries such as, for example, pharmaceutical companies, are based on a demonstration of rigorous business case and a concrete return on investment. One industry survey found that, on the one hand, 79% of the enterprises considered the advice of vendors in the development of the business case and, on the other hand, more than 80% of these enterprises regard vendor claims with strong skepticism. The reason often stated for this dilemma is that enterprises felt that vendors have exaggerated the positive and omitted the negative. Further complicating the dilemma are situations where multiple goals are involved.
An industry study associated with the survey found that vendors could better align their business case efforts by addressing the business objectives (e.g., key issues and goals of corporate executives) of the customer and connecting them to their technology solutions transparently. Several techniques and existing tools strive to provide some measure of control toward quantifying business objectives and decisions, however, these tools and techniques have basic limitations which include, for example, but not limited to:                (i) generic and focus on productivity oriented measures;        (ii) inflexible options and use numbers with questionable credibility;        (iii) hard to use and customize by sales personnel;        (iv) require strong financial background to interpret results; and        (v) seldom involve the customer in the development or configuration process.These techniques do not provide a structured approach for quantifying business goals and possible solutions which might include such exemplary choices as technology based alternatives, personnel focused contributions and/or process choices for maximizing solutions or financial results.        